Gradual Training on the Buddhist Path 2-11-22 Part 1 of 2
RRob HammondFeb 12, 2023 at 8:24 am2h 10min
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00:11Leigh Brasington
So the gradual training, that's the name given to a series of practices that we should undertake. It appears to be the curriculum for the monks and nuns in the Buddha's sangha. You become a monk or nun, here's what you gotta do. It occurs in 30+ suttas, in some form or another, has various elements, not all elements appearing in every sutta. In fact, no sutta contains all thirty elements. But there are a number of suttas that contain quite a number of these elements, particularly in the long discourses. And so by way of introduction, what I want to do with you, is share a sutta that exemplifies the gradual training. It's got a nice backstory. And you'll get a sense of what the gradual training is, as an introduction, and then afterwards, if there are questions on the backstory, we can do that and then we'll take a short break and then we'll start discussing each of the individual pieces.
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01:38Leigh Brasington
So now the sutta I want to share with you is the second one in the Long Discourses, the Sāmaññaphala Sutta. The discourse on the fruits of the spiritual life. I'll post a link to Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation, but I'm going to give you what I got.
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02:07Leigh Brasington
Thus have I heard, once the Blessed One was staying in Jīvaka's mango grove with a company of 1250 monks just outside the great city of Rājagaha. Jīvaka, who had given the mango grove to the Buddha to use as a monastery was the royal physician in the court of King Ajātasattu, King of Magadha. And on this occasion, it was the night of the full moon and King Ajātasattu was seated on the upper terrace of his palace, surrounded by his ministers and other members of the court, including Jīvaka. When the full moon rose King Ajātasattu uttered a joyful exclamation, "Oh, what a beautiful night. Oh, what a wondrous night. Oh, what an auspicious night. Perhaps we could visit some recluse or brahman, who could bring some peace to my mind."
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03:13Leigh Brasington
You see, King Ajātasattu had a very unpeaceful mind. This was because he had killed his father, good King Bimbisara. Actually, the Buddha met King Bimbisara before he became the Buddha. The story goes that King Bimbisara was looking out of one of the upper windows of his palace, and he saw a recluse going on alms round down below house to house. But this recluse seem different from other reclusive, maybe more regal bearing or something. And so King Bimbisara, calls some of his ministers over and says, you see that recluse, follow him, see where he goes and report back to me. So three of his ministers followed Siddhartha Gotama back to vultures peak, which is a mountain outside the city of Rājagaha that's studded with caves. It's a great place for a recluse to go and meditate. And so while two of the ministers kept an eye on where Siddhartha Gotama had gone, one went back and told the king and the king rode out on his chariot, as far as he could go, and then walked up and introduced himself to Siddhartha Gotama, and you know, inquired about him. "Who's your family? Are your parents still alive? How many brothers and sisters..." you've been to Asia, you know the questions. Right? And it was an interesting conversation for both of them. And eventually King Bimbisara says, "Would you like to be a minister in my court?" But remember, Siddhartha Gotama had left home, not because he was seeking politics, but because he wanted to find out what to do about old age, sickness and death. So he politely declines. But King Bimbisara got him to promise that if he figured it out, he'd come back and tell the King. And sure enough, three years later, the Buddha, fully awakened, returned to Rājagaha and gave a discourse to King Bimbisara. And King Bimbisara was established in the fruit of stream entry. In other words, he attained the first level of awakening. And the king became a great supporter of the Buddha. But the king had a son, Prince Ajātasattu and Prince Ajātasattu was an ambitious man. He grew weary of waiting for his father to die and decided to take matters into his own hands. He strapped a dagger to his thigh and went sneaking into the king's private quarters, where he was immediately apprehended by the guards. And they hauled him up in front of the king and said, "Great King, we found your son sneaking into your private quarters, and he had this dagger strapped to his thigh!" Son, why were you sneaking into my private quarters with a dagger strapped to your thigh? "I was gonna kill you, dad." "How come you want to kill me?" "I want your kingdom." "Why didn't you just say so, here- you can be king." And he made him king right on the spot. King of Bimbisara was quite happy to let go of the kingship so that he could go and practice the dhamma.
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06:50Leigh Brasington
And so Prince Ajātasattu got to be king without having to kill his father. But he grew a little worried that his father was going to get bored with all that meditation stuff and want his kingdom back. So he ordered his father thrown in the dungeon. He didn't have the heart to order him killed. He just cut off all his food. He did allow one visitor, the Queen. When she would go visit her husband she would smear her body with honey, and the king could live by licking it off. When King Bimbisara wasn't dying King Ajātasattu went to see him. "Dad, how come you're not dead yet?" "Oh, When your mother comes to visit, she smears her body with honey and anger by licking it off." End of visits from the queen. But still King Bimbisara wasn't dying. So King Ajātasattu ordered him tortured. And during the torturing, he died.
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07:55Leigh Brasington
It is said in the commentaries that two messages arrived simultaneously back at the palace. The first message was the King Ajātasattu's queen had given birth to a baby boy. And for the first time King Ajātasattu understood the love of a father for his son. And he ordered his men: "Release my father from prison!" And then they gave him the second message which was that his father was dead. From that night on, King Ajātasattu had terrible nightmares. He would no sooner fall asleep than he would wake up screaming. And his servants would rush in: "Great king, great king, are you all right?" "I'm fine. I'm fine, go away, go away." And they'd go away and he'd fall asleep and have another nightmare.
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